It took Bakballs to enter the MUEC
 Mark Alexander
Student
Back to profiles |
""My friends recommended the very high quality lecturers, the functionality and usability of the degree in the real world, and the reputation it held both in Australia and overseas""
|
MUEC winner: Sitting pretty
Physiotherapist Mark Alexander has experienced a full career. He's felt the patriotic roar of an Olympic crowd after walking in the Athens 2004 closing ceremony, chewed the fat with billionaires like Richard Branson, spent a year drinking with the world's most energetic Irish dance troupe, Riverdance, and rubbed shoulders with elite international athletes.
Last week Mark also won this year's Melbourne University Entrepreneurial Challenge (MUEC), the annual business plan competition presented by the Melbourne Business School Entrepreneurship Club and designed to showcase and commercialise innovation.
MUEC is Australia's largest business plan competition organised and run entirely by students. MUEC provides student entrepreneurs the opportunity to commercialise their business ideas and receive real-world development guidance from top Australian business leaders.
Four years ago Mark started his own business. "My company, BakPhysio develops self-treatment products for back pain. It empowers back pain sufferers to manage and treat back pain at home. "
His first product, BakBalls, attracted media interest after winning an International Innovation Award in Physiotherapy in 2005. The second product, BakRest, a back support device for the car or office, won first prize in the MUEC - $8k cash and $15k professional services with Pitcher Partners. BakRest prevents slouched sitting postures and back pain, and is expected to revolutionise future chair design.
BakPhysio, which was given a company valuation by the MUEC competition of approximately $600,000, ships thousands of products each year through distributors in Australia, New Zealand, UK, US and Canada. Mark said that winning the MUEC has given him the impetus and exposure to attract investors and expand the business so it can realise its full international growth potential.
MBA at MBS pays for itself in second term
Aside from studying and running his own business, Mark also spends three days a week lecturing on and coordinating the La Trobe University Postgraduate Sports Physiotherapy program. And he is a volunteer committee member for the National Sports Physiotherapy Committee, a sub committee of industry body, Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA).
His dance card is certainly full, but he believes he's ready for a career change from physiotherapy and is currently studying part time for his MBA at Melbourne Business School.
He cites two reasons for doing an MBA. The first is that he has achieved all of his physiotherapy goals. The second is that he wants the business skills, experience and knowledge to apply to his own business.
The MBS MBA was recommended to him by friends. "They had either done the course or were doing the course, and all raved about it," he says.
"They mentioned the very high quality lecturers, the functionality and usability of the degree in the real world, and the reputation it held both in Australia and overseas. The employers and business community give you immediate kudos and respect, and it gives you the opportunity to have first meetings with lots of people.
"The course is based on case work and experiential learning. There's lots of discussion in the classroom and because my colleagues come from a wide variety of backgrounds, there's a range of views and different learning opportunities."
Mark's business is already benefiting from MBA principles. He applied evidence-based decision making to negotiate a better licensing deal with a multinational company.
"I looked at the best and worst case scenarios, then negotiated a deal that was better than my current position even in the worst case so I couldn't lose," he says. "If I didn't have that education I would have just signed on the dotted line and been in a worse situation."
A busy career
Mark joined the workforce after graduating from University of Queensland with a Bachelor in Physiotherapy (Hons) in 1995. After working in a private practice as a physiotherapist for two years, he went to the UK on a working holiday, where he worked for the Richard Branson-owned Virgin London Broncos Rugby league team.
When his work visa expired two years later he spent six months backpacking around Europe before returning to Australia to work at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra.
"It was the opportunity of a lifetime. I was one of 10 physiotherapists servicing athletes training for the Sydney Olympics," he said.
After the Olympics, Mark relocated to the Olympic Park Sports Medicine Centre in Melbourne and shortly after that started working with the Australian Triathlon team.
This role took him to the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002 and Melbourne in 2006; the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008; and world championships in Mexico in 2002, New Zealand in 2003, Spain in 2004, Switzerland in 2006, Germany in 2007 and Canada in 2008.
After the Manchester Commonwealth games Mark won a gig working with the Irish dance company, Riverdance, while they toured Europe and Australia.
"Working with the dancers was the best job I ever had," he says. "I only worked at night when the shows were on. So my job required going to the arena each night, watching the most amazing show in the world, then having every day off to sightsee or play golf. We were put up in great hotels and had no expenses. It was fantastic."
Unfortunately just before the end of his first year, the SARS virus hit and the tour through China, Malaysia and Japan was cancelled, leaving Mark without work. He returned to Australia to study his master of sports physiotherapy degree at La Trobe University, where he is today, now running the cours
